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Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Militia Overreacts Part 2: "Lets Kill the Beast!"

While I was a teenager I worked at a grocery store. Since every one has to eat, I could tell you some interesting stories about the characters that came through.

Being both a mathematical person as well as a logical person, there was one situation that I came across again and again that always drove me mad.

The customer gets to the counter, I scan their item. On the computer screen, there was a little mark that showed whether the item was 'on-sale' or not.

Inevitably, a customer would flip off the deep end. "That was supposed to be on-sale. It's not showing as on-sale." They never asked what price it was ringing up as. They never cared that in most cases, it was the price they fully expected it to be when they put it in their cart, the computer just didn't have the 'on-sale' symbol next to it. Since it was showing as 'not on-sale' they didn't want it, period. I could have told them it was free, and they will still be angry and have me put it back.

In many ways, this is exactly what happened when CCP released the proposed changes for Faction War. CCP obviously took the time to read through the concerns and suggestions of Faction War Pilots, since they nearly verbatum 'address' all the major issues that we as Faction War pilots put together. (They may have not addressed them how we expected, and there may be some misunderstanding on their part, but the fact remains that it's pretty clear they are trying.)

Instead, Faction War pilots saw "Infrastructure Hub" and "System Upgrades" and immediately, CCP is giving us a null-sec testing ground expansion. It doesn't matter that the Infrastructure Hub is just a Control Bunker with a different name. It also doesn't matter that many of these ideas are broad and vague, showing that CCP is probably just toying with some ideas, and looking for some input from us.

CCP obviously doesn't care about us. CCP obviously wants Faction War to be a 'test bed for null-sec.' CCP obviously will do whatever they want no matter what we say.

Our expansion is not on-sale and we want them to put it back on the shelf.

In actuality, we might as well shoot ourselves in the foot in the process, because right now we have a unique, powerful opportunity that we're not really taking full advantage of. We have:

Hans Jagerblitzen on the CSM who is extremely good at being an advocate for FW interests, (also, if you ever need help seeing past the rage, just talk to him for a couple of hours. He is almost infuriatingly sensible, and has the uncanny ability to hammer sense into people while remaining calm, polite, and diplomatic in the process.)

an upcoming 'War' expansion that will partially be focused around FW changes, and

game developers and designers at CCP who are practically begging us to explain to them some of the issues we're facing.

The next few days, I'm going to be asking myself and others some hard questions. Questions that need to be asked. Questions like...are all null-sec sov mechanics really that bad? What is the underlying fears here, beyond the almost irrational disgust at what name something might have? When we shout that we want 'plexes to have more meaning' what meaning do we really mean?

What is it that we think CCP doesn't get? Do we get it ourselves?What is the point of Faction War? In pushing away from null-sec sov-like mechanics, do we risk becoming too much like RvB or general low-sec fight club?Should we be fight club?Where does role playing fall into all of this? When do we start looking at what makes sense from an EVE storyline, lore sense?Is what we really want--what we are frustrated with, really tied in with Faction War, or are we acting out on problems that are inherent to the game in general?

I will probably piss some people off. I will probably dig a little too deep and drive myself crazy in the process. But I think it's time. I think it's time to put down the pitchforks and sit down to the negotiating table, heavily armed with a clear understanding of the underlying issues and the brutal truth of the direction that FW needs to go.

Sure, it's entirely possible that CCP will blow us off. It's entirely possible that we won't get everything we want, or things we may not want. It's entirely possible that when the dust settles and the truth is on the table, that our rage is completely justified.

However, lets not miss out on the opportunity for a great deal by throwing something back on the shelf in a rage because it wasn't what we expected up-front.

If Inferno is a huge raging mess when all is said and done, let that be CCP's fault and not ours.

Love the insight into FW. Considered it a couple times, but the comments I got from those whom I asked were a resounding "run away as fast as you can". Still, the board wargamer in me is intrigued. The ability to influence the Empire map by shifting the otherwise static sovereignty has a lot of appeal. But when I look in to what effect that shift has and what the long-term goal is, I start to lose interest rapidly.

Other than most, if not all, of the action occurring in lowsec, how is FW different from what RvB does?

Or the sov fights in null, for that matter? (Yes, I get the level of structure shooting isn't the same, but the day-to-day grind of PvP for PvP's sake is the same).

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